by Walter Oden
How work ethic improves all psychology
Background:
One of my favorite movies of all time is Forrest Gump The first time I saw this movie, I was so drawn into “rooting” for Forrest. It seemed that with every turn, good fortune followed Forrest. The movie implies that a “feather” touched Forrest when he was young and that provided him with the “luck” he needed to overcome his cognitive challenges.
I have a completely different take on the movie. I have seen the movie over 10 times. I now see Forrest as a very talented human being. Forrest has a higher “work ethic” than all people around him. In fact, he was physically and mentally more capable of sticking to a process than other more cognitively capable peers. The ongoing “joke” in the movie was that Forrest just kept working and trying “not know any better”. His hard work and determination ALONE resulted in success in spite of what he knew or believed!
What is this all about?
During the fall of 2013, I attended a presentation at Laurel School of Shaker Heights, Ohio by Dr. Lisa Damour. She is a high profile school psychologist and specializes in learning styles. She is a colleague of Stanford psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck.
In the last year, the theory of Fixed versus Growth Mindsets has been published and touted as a positive approach to teaching students to be their best. Dr. Damour’s presentation was nice enough to summarize the theory as follows:
Fixed Mindset: How you are born is what you believe is your final place in the world. You are threatened by feedback. You are also threatened by others that are doing better than you.
Growth Mindset: Wherever you are born is the starting point of your journey. Your end game is after all the work has been done. You see feedback as a positive piece in the puzzle. You also look to others doing better than you as a model for your work pathway.
The link below goes directly to a site that summarizes the theory:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/
A theory leap that “feels good”
The Growth Mindset Theory makes a Utopian leap in that it implies that by changing psychology from Fixed to Growth, a person will naturally be willing to work hard. I think for some of the population this is potentially true. Yet, that population was likely on the “bubble” as a hard worker. I wish everyone was willing to work hard once they felt good about their prospects. As we explore below, that situation may not fit the whole population.
The unpopular truth:
No one feels comfortable having the “Nurture versus Nature” discussion. Yet, there are certain realities to genetics and traits. Although no one has successfully isolated the “work gene”, I would argue it exists. It doesn’t take a scientist to observe society and notice the difference between WORKERS and NON-WORKERS. This trait is generally unrelated to socioeconomic conditions. In fact, human resource studies have consistently shown that what a person is paid is unrelated to how good or bad an employee they are. Yes, a good environment and solid upbringing helps. Yet, we can all cite examples of people that are just darn “lazy” even if they are from solid families. Therefore, we have to realistically rate people by their inclination to DO WORK. This could be called a WORK INCLINATION CONTINUUM or WORK ETHIC INDEX.
I challenge you as a reader to rank your co-workers based on WORK ETHIC only. How about the students we teach?
How to score WORK ETHIC
There are two ways of looking at this continuum. First, how do you rate yourself? Clearly, few people will rate themselves as LAZY. On the other hand, you might rate yourself as a procrastinator. Procrastination does not always equate with LOW WORK ETHIC. It simply implies TIMING of WORK. Yet, perpetual procrastinators will be addressed in our analysis later.
The most important observations would be how am I perceived by others? Perception of others is an important aspect of reality.
The Work Ethic Index
A real work ethic index would be some combination a SELF rating and PERCEPTION of the PUBLIC rating. The highest index would be someone with a LOW SELF RATING and HIGH RATING from OTHERS. This person is always looking to work HARDER because they don’t believe they are working hard enough.
The worst rating would be where I rate myself as a HARD WORKER and others see me as a LAZY BUM!
Impact on Fixed versus Growth Mindset Theory
The “Mindset Theory” is a good one, but it may need to account for a WORK ETHIC INDEX to address certain realities. In an effort to include it, I have created a matrix that may attempt to merge the theories. The reason this matters is that addressing WORK ETHIC may be more important than addressing mindset!
You will note in my matrix below, you are much better off having a FIXED MINDSET and HIGH WORK ETHIC INDEX than both of the LOW WORK ETHIC INDEX quadrants. Since I am a full time tennis professional, I make some professional tennis player references.
The Oden Mindset Matrix
Fixed Mindset/High Work Ethic Index (Upper Left Quadrant – RED)
These people just work hard. They overcome any limitations created by their lack of belief. Often, this person is very error averse and hates mistakes. Yet, because of their HIGH WORK ETHIC marker, they address their belief limitations by simply “going to work every day”. The results simply come as a result of work.
Tennis Athletes: Chris Evert and Steffi Graf. Steffi was well known for her love practice much more than competition!
Fixed Mindset/Low Work Ethic Index (Lower Left Quadrant – BLUE)
This person says “I can’t because of” a lot. This person also claims to “try hard” with very little evidence of this reality. It is generally “someone else’s fault” for their plight.
This person simply sees their situation as stuck and there is no use in trying. Improvement is futile. Pushing this person into the GROWTH mindset might help. On the other hand, this plan will likely fail due to a lack of WORK ETHIC.
Growth Mindset/High Work Ethic Index (Upper Right Quadrant – GREEN)
This person is very END GAME oriented. They see the “what if” and are willing to “get to work” to achieve this vision. These people take mistakes in stride and see them as all a part of the “bigger picture”. They will likely take losses and immediately get back to work!
Tennis Athletes: Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Listen to their post match interviews. You will immediately hear their approach. They are “learning” from their losses and have BIGGER goals to achieve!
Growth Mindset/Low Work Ethic Index (Lower Right Quadrant – YELLOW)
I like to call this quadrant the DREAMER. They like to talk about all their big plans, with little evidence of action. This person can have some great ideas and may appear to have a GOOD ATTITUDE. On the other hand, without an injection of good old fashioned WORK, there will never be any movement. This person is commonly called a PROCRASTINATOR!
Conclusions:
The Growth Mindset Theory is a really POSITIVE theory for learning. I am very drawn and committed to positive coaching as a philosophy. On the other hand, I have strong opinions on utilizing certain realities to improve results. Sometimes the “truth” is more powerful than a “theory”. As a final note, writing this article is an attempt to move myself out of the GROWTH MINDSET/LOW WORK ETHIC INDEX quadrant! At least, that is how I rate myself. Thank your so much for your time and energy reading this!
Copyright Walter Oden and “I Have and Idea”, August 2013, All Rights Reserved. Please see global copyright information on sidebar of this blog.
I Have an Idea 
Walt, I love what you have identified. Ironically, this article of mine (below) was published in the newspaper yesterday. Thought you might enjoy a similar take. Best wishes! Dave
Soft American Culture
By David W. Smith
America has been in denial. Each generation, it seems, has become more lenient , provide less stress-filled academia, has a general minimalistic work ethic, and a growing population who think that others are responsible for their health, well-being, and essentially, social status.
Many may disagree. Yet, our society has become so programmed into a societal perception that many people ignore the signs of decline in the aforementioned areas. However, when one looks upon history and the changing world of economic, academic, and even athletic success, it is easy to see the weakening of American Culture today.
Case in point: we hosted four Chinese college students who, with two dozen fellow Chinese performers, treated St. George (Utah) to a truly memorable concert of traditional Chinese music.
What struck me was this: One of the students asked, “Why are your children not doing homework?” This was asked at 9pm. Upon discussion, they said that students in China do homework until 10 pm most nights and go to school from 8am to 6pm, (with two-hour breaks at mid day), five days a week. Their school year is considerably longer too.
I know many American families would look upon this academic load as being excessive. Our culture might ridicule such academic fortitude as absurd if not simply unreasonable. However, the Chinese appear to relish such discipline as a means to excel, to lead, to not just learn but to KNOW.
In watching the amazing talents displayed by these musicians and singers, I asked how long they had played and practiced their instruments and/or singing skills: The least was 12 years.
Many American kids can’t stick with one thing for six months, let alone a dozen or more years.
I saw a correlation between the discipline taught—and expected—by the Chinese and the skill in which these performers displayed. They didn’t just practice enough to get through a concert with mediocrity, they performed with precision, perfection, and expertise that I have not seen in a very long time.
I also see how our diminishing expectations and work ethics in schools by students, (not all, I do see a minority of diligent, dedicated, disciplined, and driven students working very hard and making personal sacrifices to succeed), has produced students who don’t know how to do basic skills, procedures, or processes, nor do they retain history, scientific principles, or read at or near their potential. With such little emphasis on repetition, practice, (through homework), and time spent really covering all aspects of each subject matter in school, how can we expect to produce productive students who will be able to compete in the long run with countries who put a premium on education and expertise?
The same emphasis can be seen in learning an instrument or playing a sport. A majority of American kids are taught only to “have fun” and that winning—and thus the dedicated emphasis on disciplined practice—is not necessary.
We are a soft country growing softer by the year.
Dave,
I couldn’t agree more. For some reason, I never saw this comment! I will have to improve my use of WORDPRESS! Culture has a lot to do with work ethic. Cultures that don’t tolerate “low effort” tend to excel on average. What we need is a shift in culture. Thanks Dave!